Multiple-hop relayed directional beam formed wireless communication (mm-wave mesh network) method and apparatus which takes place at the PHY layer. Network capability is enhanced by improving routing protocols between neighboring STAs when communicating from an originating STA, through intermediate STAs, to a destination STA. The routing takes into consideration antenna sector selection to limit interference with neighboring STAs, and channel time utilization to increase throughput. Link metrics and channel times are established for optimizing routing and the determination of intermediate stations between an originating STA and a destination STA. The apparatus and method balances both end-end path link quality and interference impact.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. An apparatus for directional wireless communication between stations (STAs), comprising: (a) a wireless communication station (STA) configured for performing sector sweep and feedback signaling to exchange antenna sector information, and perform directional wireless radio communications, with neighboring stations; (b) a computer processor; (c) a non-transitory computer-readable memory storing instructions executable by the computer processor; (d) wherein said instructions, when executed by the computer processor, perform steps comprising: (i) exchanging and recording quantized channel gain, or path loss, information of each antenna sector with one or more neighboring stations; (ii) generating route discovery messages to neighboring stations when establishing a multiple hop routing path from an originating station to a destination station; and (iii) processing received route discovery messages by determining transmit antenna sector for communications with neighboring stations that generated the route discovery messages and propagating the route discovery messages to neighboring stations if the station is not the destination station; (iv) establishing the multiple hop routing path taking into consideration channel time utilization and impact to the ongoing traffic at the neighboring stations.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein interference impact is considered in response to checking multiple antenna sectors for use and selecting a sector based on link quality and/or interference impact to neighboring stations (STAs).
3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said determining transmit antenna sector for communications with neighboring stations comprises either exchanging all antenna sector information with neighboring stations, or to exchange a subset of the actual number of sectors that the station is configured with.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said wireless communication station (STA) mutually exchanges quantized channel gain information and traffic activity information with neighboring stations before route discovery takes place.
5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein channel times are assigned when the multiple hop routing path is established from an originating station to a destination station.
6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein channel times are assigned in response to transmitting assigned channel time information inside the route discovery message.
7. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising accumulating and utilizing forward link and reverse link metrics from route discovery messages when determining the routing path.
8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein said discovery messages are utilized for transmitting received signal quality information during the route discovery process.
9. An apparatus for directional wireless communication between stations (STAs), comprising: (a) a wireless communication station (STA) configured for performing sector sweep and feedback signaling to exchange antenna sector information, and perform directional wireless radio communications, with neighboring stations; (b) a computer processor; (c) a non-transitory computer-readable memory storing instructions executable by the computer processor; (d) wherein said instructions, when executed by the computer processor, perform steps comprising: (i) exchanging and recording quantized channel gain, or path loss, information of each antenna sector with one or more neighboring stations; (ii) generating route discovery messages to neighboring stations when establishing a multiple hop routing path from an originating station to a destination station; (iii) processing received route discovery messages by determining transmit antenna sector to be utilized in the communication with a neighboring station from which a route discovery message was received, and propagating the route discovery message to a neighbor station if the station is not the destination station; and (iv) establishing the multiple hop routing path in response to considering channel time utilization and impact to the ongoing traffic at the neighbor stations and assigning channel time at the time of route set.
10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein said wireless communication station (STA) mutually exchanges quantized channel gain information and traffic activity information with neighboring stations before route discovery takes place.
11. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein channel times are assigned when the multiple hop routing path is established from an originating station to a destination station.
12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein channel times are assigned in response to transmitting assigned channel time information inside the route discovery message.
13. The apparatus of claim 9 , further comprising accumulating and utilizing forward link and reverse link metrics from route discovery messages when determining the routing path.
14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein said discovery messages are utilized for transmitting received signal quality information during the route discovery process.
15. A method for performing directional wireless communication between stations (STAs) comprising: (a) exchanging and recording quantized channel gain, or path loss, information of each antenna sector with one or more neighboring stations (STAs) which are configured for generating directional radio transmissions to other stations which are in range, and for receiving radio transmissions from other stations; (b) generating route discovery messages to neighboring stations when establishing a multiple hop routing path from an originating station to a destination station; (c) processing received route discovery messages by determining transmit antenna sector for the communication with a neighboring station that generated the route discovery message, and propagating the route discovery message to a neighbor station if the station is not the destination station; and (d) establishing the multiple hop routing path taking into account channel time utilization and impact to the ongoing traffic at the neighboring stations.
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein transmit antenna sectors are determined to a neighboring station and interference impact is considered in response to checking multiple antenna sectors for use and selecting an antenna sector based on link quality and/or interference impact to neighboring stations (STAs).
17. The method of claim 15 , wherein said determining transmit antenna sector for communications with neighboring stations comprises either exchanging all antenna sector information with neighboring stations, or to exchange a subset of the actual number of sectors that the station is configured with.
18. The method of claim 15 , wherein channel times are assigned when the multiple hop routing path is established from an originating station to a destination station.
19. The method of claim 15 , further comprising accumulating and utilizing forward link and reverse link metrics from route discovery messages when determining the routing path.
20. The method of claim 19 , wherein said discovery messages are utilized for transmitting received signal quality information during the route discovery process.
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September 24, 2019
March 16, 2021
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